There are presently many variations of sheet handling, envelope feeders and mail handling equipment that will feed one or more envelopes or mail from an input hopper. The feeding and advancing mechanisms in such equipment will push or convey such material, or flat media along an input feed path to a separating station. Depending on if there is a stack of material, the separating station will ultimately feed one piece forward as intended. The separating station will restrict the amount of material, or media that will be fed forward. An example of this arrangement may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,037 to Holbrook for FRONT FEEDER FOR LARGE SIZE MAIL HANDLING MACHINE, U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,037 to Holbrook for FRONT END FEEDER FOR MAIL HANDLING MACHINE and U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,432 to Freeman for FEEDER MODULE. This type of feeding device typically has a structural mechanism located to engage the near lateral edge portions of the sheets, envelopes and mail that may be placed on the feed deck, the structure intended to help guide each piece. In such prior art, the side guiding structure is necessary to insure that each mail-piece; envelope or other flat media article is properly registered at the upper side. In addition, there is a need to alleviate some of the concern on the part of the machine operator in regards to placement of the material in a feed hopper or feeding plate. The present invention permits the machine operator to place the material on the feeding plate or feeding deck, knowing that it will be registered, guided and transported automatically to it's downstream location or function.
The prior art moves the media downstream, but only when the individual article or stack of articles to be fed is nearly aligned with the intended path of travel. If there is a significant angular difference (less than 90 degrees), the article may not properly register against a registration wall or surface as desired because of the tendency of the material to rotate at the leading or trailing ends of the article. This is why the structural guides placed at the front operator side of the equipment are necessary. These structures are designed to be a second guiding arrangement; more or less insuring the media will be placed on the feed deck at a substantially parallel relationship with the registration wall to begin with. The present invention eliminates such side guiding structure, and utilizes a feeding system that eliminates skewing of the material in advance of the next downstream function.
Registration at the upper end of all media being processed is important in order to insure that down-stream functions and processing will properly occur. Any media that is mis-registered may not be properly printed with an indicia. This is a concern if it involves disbursement of money like a postage meter or franking device. In mailing machines, improper registration can mean a jam at the separator or conveyor station leading to the envelope moistener area of the machine. The present invention provides a way that insures that the media placed on the feeding deck of media processing equipment will be properly registered at its upper edge, where that edge is the key reference for accomplishing the desired next function in the equipment The present invention provides a way to immediately align the workpiece or media with the key registration wall, since the workpiece is pushed directly broadside into engagement with the registration wall. The mechanism disclosed herein additionally eliminates the need for structural guide components intended to cause the desired upper registration of the media.